Travelling the blogiverse

"Seriously, who is this Hawkins guy? never heard of him. Literally." -flyoverpilgrim

Me neither! I saw this obituary mentioned on several other blogs, thought it was a silly thing to say, and only finally stopped to read about it in the friendly confines of ZotR, thanks. So, presumably, he increased his hits by knocking those who don't get as many hits? Nice way to self-promote!

Time is preciously limited. I wasn't really reading blogs until my wife kept directing me to posts on HillBuzz. I got absorbed in that for a while. One blog led to another and I find I am currently subscribed to (checking my feeds list) Ace of Spades, Althouse, Big Gov, Conservative Commune, HillBuzz, Legal Insurrection, Melanie Philips, Patterico, PoliNation, Reason Mag, Sister Toldjah, and some little pink blog called Zilla of the Resistance. Also regularly check Ann Barnhardt. I frequently wander elsewhere when linked to sites. That's just the politics. Oh, and a frequent glance at Drudge, which used to be a main resource but now I'm not as dependent upon it. I also have a half-dozen fun feeds, a couple from sites by family, and a home-town news feed via Google. Used to have other Google News feeds, but with all those sites, and the links by commenters, I think I'm getting the news I need. Well, there's a weather site, but it seems to be stuck on HOT! CLEAR! DRY!

Each additional blog means more competition for my time. In the past week, I started reading everything at Ace of Spades, a fascinating but very busy place. I soon found I was bogging on bloggining (reading blogs should have a word). Then there was an Ace post that got >1300 comments. I think I'm cured. I've been ramping up my speed-reading, scanning for interesting links in articles & comments rather than reading closely, and becoming more discriminating in what I spend time reading. I'm in constant flux rather than in settled habits, and trying to get the technology to help me save as much time as possible. (Oops. The news feeds just updated.) Also, I still have Real Life to deal with. Lawn needs mowing. Pets need feeding. The family business... is a shambles, really, but I keep pounding on its chest. :) And the other night, Mrs Webworker & I actually took time to relax and watch a movie (The Iron Giant, great flick)! So, various sites are competitive in terms of time-demand, but not head-to-head. Each site has its own attractions. Some sites are overwhelming while others are quiet and friendly, but it hardly seems t'me like the merry blogiverse is in decay.

My own humble vanity site (secondary slogan: "The Internet's best-kept secret since 1996"℠!) is not a blog, exactly. Since March, I've been slowly converting it to modern web format -- a project that looks like it will take maybe a year, and at some point soon plan to add a sidebar with "favorite sites" like I've seen so many good sites have. Because, as I've commented on both HillBuzz and PoliNation (aaand now on here), linkage is the revolution against the LaughingStock Media tyranny.